Due to the increase in femicides and the impunity that prevails in the state of Chiapas, the Center for Women’s Rights Chiapas, a civil organization based in San Cristóbal de las Casas, has proclaimed a permanent Gender Alert.

In November 2013, the Center started a petition to the National System to Prevent, Attend, Sanction, and Eradicate Violence against Women (SNPASEVM) calling on it to declare a gender alert in the state. However, in January of this year, SNPASEVM rejected the petition, claiming that the murders of women does not threaten the social peace in the state, and adding that many of these deaths have not been recognized as femicides.

“How many women must die before the State considers there to exist a pattern of violence against women in Chiapas?” asks the Center for Women’s Rights Chiapas.

According to Alma Padilla, director of the Center, “the Mexican State is not willing to declare a gender alert because it has instituted programs to prevent femicide and violence against women. However, these [programs] have had no result. On the contrary, both the numbers of femicides and cases of violence against women are on the rise.”

Official information presented by the Center shows that between January and October of last year, 84 murders of women were documented, 52 of which have been categorized as femicides. An investigation has been requested to determine if those remaining also qualify as such.

In parallel terms to the proclamation of the permanent Gender Alert, the Center for Women’s Rights Chiapas has indicated that it will continue to demand that the authorities declare an alert and combat the crime of femicide.